Despite high number, Scheifele enjoys chance to play at tourney

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This article was published 17/08/2018 (2921 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The leaderboard may show him right at the bottom, ahead of only a golfer who withdrew and another who was disqualified.

But Mark Scheifele said he feels like a winner after a memorable experience at the Players Cup. The star centre with the Winnipeg Jets fired a second-round 86 Friday, one stroke better than the 87 he shot Thursday.

Those numbers don’t tell the whole story. No, he was never in contention to make the cut, which he missed by 35 shots. But the large contingent of fans that turned out to watch him out of his element were a boon to tournament organizers who wanted to bring some additional exposure to the annual summer event.

And for Scheifele, he got to do something that will end up being among his athletic highlights.

“Oh, it’ll rank way up there. Doing something that is totally out of the norm. Playing in a legit golf tournament. You think you might never get the chance. A lot of guys that I know that play a lot of rounds of golf will never get a chance to play a tournament like this. So, I’m definitely very fortunate that they gave me the sponsor exemption to play in it. I’ll definitely always remember it. It’s something that I will always look back on,” Scheifele said.

He provided fans with a few highlights Friday, getting through his first six holes at even par. The highlights included a pair of birdies that had him dreaming of a low score. After making the turn at 2-over 38, the wheels fell off on the back nine as he shot a 12-over 48.

“I definitely got exhausted. Every hole, you get more and more of an appreciation for what these guys do on a day-to-day basis,” Scheifele said. “You’ve got to see what it was like to play a pro course and I enjoyed it. I played with two great guys. I made some good shots, I made some bad shots. I didn’t go in expecting anything. I wanted to enjoy it and have fun and hit some good shots and have some good holes. I think I accomplished everything that I wanted to these last two days.”

Scheifele said he was frequently reminded of how golf truly is a game of inches, where the little things and attention to detail can quickly add up.

“The way these courses are designed, they’re going to make you pay if you mis-hit a shot. It just shows how dialled you have to be each and every shot,” he said while marvelling at the 6 under cut line.

“It’s crazy. For how good these guys are, for that to be the cut line is pretty amazing. It just shows how good these guys are. It makes you think that to keep climbing, the guys that are on the (PGA) Tour, the Woods and Koepkas of the world (and think about) how good they must be, it’s pretty cool to see these guys at a young stage doing that. It will be exciting to follow some of them in the future,” Scheifele said.

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Home cooking just wasn’t enough to get any local favourites into the weekend.

All eight Manitobans in the field missed the cut.

Aaron Cockerill, the lone full-time member on tour, came closest. He fired a 4-under 68 following an opening round 72, but ended up two strokes out of the picture. A pair of bogeys on his back nine didn’t help the cause.

Kevin Giesbrecht of St. Charles ended up 3 under after rounds of 71 and 70.

Winnipegger Travis Fredborg matched Cockerill’s 68 Friday, but was done in by his opening-round 77. Devon Schade (71-73), Bret Thompson (74-76), Justin McDonald (75-74), Charlie Boyechko (77-74) and Andrew Steep (77-77) were the others.

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It was a shot he won’t soon forget. Florida’s Josh Hart aced the par-3 11th hole Friday, hitting a perfect six-iron into the 195-yard hole at Southwood.

“It just landed, three, four feet short right of the pin and trickled right in. Got to see it disappear. It was awesome,” Hart, 26, said following his round of 68, which put him at 7 under for the tournament and just above the cut line.

“When it was in the air, I knew it was good. I hit it just how I wanted to. It should have been a perfect club. I knew it was going to be pretty good in the air. You never think it’s going to go in in the air,” Hart said.

This was the fifth hole-in-one of his career, but the first in tournament play. It was also the ninth ace of the year on the Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada.

Hart had missed three straight cuts entering play this week and desperately needed a good showing, as he sits 69th on the money list. The top 60 at the end of the season automatically retain their tour cards.

“We got through to the weekend, just got to keep it going,” said Hart, who had to calm himself a bit after the memorable shot. You’re so excited, you’re on such a high. You’ve kinda got to refocus and try to just go back hitting one shot at a time,” he said.

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A pair of Monday qualifiers have managed to play their way into contention.

Calgary’s Aaron Crawford sits at 7 under after rounds of 69-68, while Arizona’s Eric Hallberg (the son of former PGA regular Gary Hallberg) just made it at 6 under with rounds of 67-71. The other eight players who Monday qualified at Pine Ridge came up short.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @mikemcintyrewpg